>> woodruff: paul solman reports on people working beyond retirement age, even into their hundreds, and whether having more older workers is a plus for the economy, social security and more. >> ifill: an accused boston mob boss has his day in court, we look at the trial of whitey bulger, charged with involvement in 19 murders carried out by the winter hill crime gang. >> woodruff: and we continue our "food for nine billion" series with a story from singapore. on one farm-owner's bid to get around the lack of open land by taking farming in a new direction. >> land here comes at a premium, forcing people to expand up rather than out. and it's not just office towers and apartment complexes that are reaching skyward: singapore now has one of the world's first commercial vertical farms. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i want to make things more secure. >> i want to treat more dogs. >> our business needs more cases. >> where do you want to take your business? >> i need help selling art. >> from broadband, to web hosting, to mobile apps, small business solutions from a.t.&t. can help get you there. we can show you how a.t.&t. solutionn ness today. >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and everyday since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so that we can all produce energy more safely. b.p. is also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: for the first time, the man running the national security agency spoke publicly today about extensive surveillance of phone calls and online communications. he defended the efforts and said, "we're trying to protect americans." ray suarez begins our coverage. >> reporter: army general keith alexander came to a senate hearing to discuss cyber- security in general. but the questions quickly turned to surveillance. vermont democrat patrick leahy pressed him to tell what the n.s.a. has to show for its efforts. >> has the intelligence community kept track of how many times phone records obtained through section 215 of the patriot act were critical to the discovery and disruption of terrorist threats? >> i gave an approximate number to them in a classified. >> so what's the number of them... >> but it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. >> reporter: others, including oregon democrat jeff merkley, wanted to know more. >> so here i have my verizon phone. my cell phone. what authorized investigation gave you the grounds for acquiring my cell phone data? >> you know i think on the legal standards and stuff, on this part here, i think we need to get department of justice and others, because it is a complex area. i think what we're doing to protect american citizens here is the right thing. our agency takes great pride in protecting this nation and our civil liberties and privacy. >> reporter: alexander said he's bothered by how edward snowden,- an intelligence contractor at n.s.a.-- could learn of the surveillance programs, and then leak them. snowden's last known whereabouts were hong kong. and today, he was heard from again. in an interview with the "south china morning post", he declared: "i am neither traitor nor hero. i'm an american." he insisted he would not flee. instead, he said, "my intention is to ask the courts and people of hong kong to decide my fate." many in congress have condemned snowden and defended the n.s.a.'s activities, which key committees monitored all along. others voiced new concern yesterday as they emerged from closed-door meetings with intelligence officials. democratic congressman brad sherman of california said he was surprised by the scope of the monitoring under the secret fisa court. >> i did not know a billion records a day were coming under the control of the federal executive branch. >> reporter: maryland democrat dutch ruppersberger said it's high time for a full-scale airing of the privacy-versus- security issue. >> congress needs to debate this issue and determine what tools we give to our intelligence community to protect us from terrorist attacks. >> reporter: lawmakers will get to ask more questions tomorrow, behind closed doors, when the house and senate receive separate briefings on the n.s.a.'s surveillance. >> ifill: we'll have more on american's attitudes on balancing privacy and security later in the broadcast; between now and then; calming the unrest in turkey; working beyond retirement age; a notorious alleged mobster goes on trial in boston and farming in a singapore high-rise. but first, with the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: a colorado wildfire forced evacuations of more than 7,000 people today, as it burned out of control in record heat and high wind. officials said the big blaze may have destroyed 100 homes so far, with hundreds more in jeopardy, near colorado springs. as the flames spread, more than 900 prisoners had to be moved from a state prison. the fire is burning in an area near last year's waldo canyon fire that wiped out nearly 350 homes. forecasters are keeping an anxious watch on a huge storm system that could affect 75 million americans in 19 states, over the next two days. the national weather service issued its highest alert today for iowa, illinois, indiana, and ohio. the system could bring heavy thunderstorms, tornadoes and even a rare, straight-line wind storm known as a derecho. the u.s. senate wrangled today over how secure the mexican border has to be before immigration reform kicks in. republican charles grassley of iowa, called for full border control for six months, before anyone in the country illegally moves toward citizenship. democrats, including patrick leahy of vermont, objected. it was part of the debate on an immigration bill authored by the so-called "gang of eight" senators. >> the group of eight, say they're open to improving the bill. well, my amendment, now before the senate, does just that. my amendment improves the trigger that jump starts the legalization program. it ensures that the border is secure before one person gets legal status under this act. >> i will oppose efforts that impose unrealistic, excessively costly, overly rigid, inhumane or ineffective border security measures. and i will oppose efforts to modify the triggers in ways that could unduly delay or prevent the earned legalization path we've waited too long already. >> holman: currently the bill calls for improvements to the border fence and other triggers before immigrants are granted new status. in moscow, as many as 15,000 protesters marched today to denounce russian president putin. the demonstrators, including opposition leaders, criticized putin for authoritarian rule and demanded freedom for dissidents arrested at putin's inauguration. the turnout was far below the 100,000 who protested against putin before he won his third term as president last year. former south african president nelson mandela reportedly is responding better to medical treatment today. the 94-year-old mandela has been hospitalized five days with a recurring lung infection. south africa's current president jacob zuma shared news of the improvement in a parliamentary address. >> we are very happy with the progress that he is now making following a difficult few days. we appreciate the messages of support from all over the world. >> holman: mandela spent 27 years in prison under south africa's apartheid regime. in 1994, he became the country's first black president. a 10-year-old pennsylvania girl with cystic fibrosis received a lung transplant today from an adult donor. sarah murnaghan's case drew national attention when a federal judge last week ordered her placed on the adult transplant list, overruling hospital procedures. the judge also added an 11-year- old boy to the list. as more cars let drivers use on wall street, stocks tumbled again over renewed worries over whether the federal reserve will rein in its stimulus efforts. the dow jones industrial average dropped back under 15,000, losing 126 points to close at 14,995. the nasdaq fell 36 points to close at 3,400. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: we return now to turkey and the protests against prime minister erdogan that have gripped the country. an uneasy calm held in taksim square at mid-morning in istanbul, riot police rested around a monument to modern turkey's founding er, kemal ataturk, and armored vehicles idled, their water cannons silent. but protesters insisted their resolve was unbroken. >> ( translated ): we do not want to withdraw or to go back one step. there were civil demands and we were all united without any political help from any party. here there is a civil resistance and we will not get back until our demands are fulfilled. >> woodruff: the daytime quiet was perhaps a product more of exhaustion than of any resolution to the near-two-week standoff. and it followed a violent night that left the square littered with debris. clashes between police and protesters raged through the night hours, with water cannon, tear gas fusillades. protesters threw rocks and chunks of sidewalk and launched fireworks at police. it was the most serious confrontation in the square since the sit-in began with environmentalists trying to preserve gezi park-- one thin slice of green space in sprawling, central istanbul. when police assaulted that initial gathering, other groups, with a more pronounced political agenda, joined in. since then, protests have spread to other cities. today, lawyers in the capital, ankara, gathered to decry heavy- handed treatment. >> ( translated ): oppression has been going on for months. they are doing it to their own people and in doing so, the government is exactly like the ones that they have been criticizing. >> woodruff: that's a veiled reference to the syrian regime of bashar al-assad, on turkey's southern border. turkish prime minister reccep tayyip erdogan has become a staunch supporter of syrian rebels seeking to bring down assad. but now the protests here have morphed into the most-serious challenge to erdogan's rule since he first won office ten years ago. turkey's economy, already the trouble has also laid bare long-simmering class and religious tensions, between secular, liberal groups on one side and erdogan and his ruling, islamist justice party on the other. erdogan has bristled at the challenge, seeking to crush the protests, and dismissing the throngs as outside agitators. he's also calling for his supporters to turn out in large numbers later this week. but turkey's other senior leader, president abdullah gul, struck a more conciliatory tone again today, near the black sea in turkey's north, after meeting with schoolchildren. >> ( translated ): i've said since the beginning: peaceful, non-violent demonstrations, displays of opinion, sharing of ideas, these are all democratic rights. and we're proud of that. >> woodruff: meanwhile, in back in ankara, erdogan met with a delegation of 11 activists today, but others in the streets said the group was not representative of the larger movement. and after that meeting came the announcement from erdogan's justice party that a referendum on the park's fate would be considered if the protestors finally leave. joining me now to discuss the protests, the government's reponse and what it all means, is scott peterson of the christian science monitor in istanbul. and soner cagaptay, director of the washington institute's turkish research program. we thank you both for being here let me start with you, scott peterson. the government came down really hard on these demonstrators last night. where do these things stand now? >> well, at the moment-- and, in fact, for most of the day today-- the police have been very, very relaxed. control of this square. they opened it up this morning after a night full of violence. there was a lot of back-and-forth fighting with protesters, lots of things exploding, things moving through the air and ultimately, of course, the police won that battle and by dawn this morning there was traffic already moving around the square and we saw a very different sense from the police today. they looked very relaxed, had their helmets off, riot shields piled up, although we're not sure what may be happening tonight. some people are expecting there might be a push to try and clear that gezi park. >> woodruff: soner cagaptay, who are these people and what is driving them? >> they are secular middle-class turks, it's not the game of politics where you have islam versus secularism or islamist versus secularist. this is not an ideological protest movement, it's about quality of democracy in curty. this is people making middle-class demands about the government's need to respect freedom of assembly and association. urban space-- hence the demonstrations over the park. it's a sign of a new turkey. turkey has become a wealthy society. the a.k.p. and its leader erdogan, thanks to their success it has become a majority of middle-class society. now they're making middle-class demands saying "we have a right to assembly and if the government is going to build a shopping mall they should ask for our opinion." >> woodruff: scott peterson, the government is saying there are terrorists among the demonstrators. have you seen the makeup of these protests change in the last few days. >> well, they definitely have made a lot of claims about who these protesters are but, in fact, really it's a broader group of turks than you'd expect. certainly those who are manning the front lines during some of the most violent protests during these last two weeks have been mostly young people, some of them have been football hooligans or others truly looking for trouble but i would say the vast majority of the people we've seen here cut across a much broader swath of turkish society. so you've got young people certainly university students but at the same time you've also got their parents who often are there. i've seen last night, for example, during some of the very heated exchanges when there was tear gas all over the place i saw one mother and quite older mother hand in hand with her daughter and they both had their gas masks on and were trying to make a point and we see this in a lot of different places here. so i think it's correct to recognize that really, you know, there are a lot of people who are here and trying to make their point unified really in kind of their anger at how prime minister erdogan has handled his own leadership, feeling that they're very, very much excluded and trying to use this event as a way of getting their voices out there. >> woodruff: soner cagaptay, what about erdogan's response? how do you explain it? >> the response has been heavy handed. obviously he did not reach out for a compromise. the demonstrators are saying thn the election but listen to us." and erdogan's response has been heavy handed. but today he reached out. there was a suggestion that there will be a referendum hold determine whether this park will be turned into a shopping mall. but i think overall he's trying to build his constituency which is is political right of the turkish spectrum but he will have a challenge which is that the turkish political left and liberals have found a voice that they can demonstrate, do so publicly. >> woodruff: scott peterson, again, do you sense more broadly among the turkish population the support for erdogan? prime minister erdogan says he has? >> well, there's no question that he's got a lot of support that really and probably as he says is 50% of the country. now, we also know, however, that there's some people who are within his own ruling a.k.p. party, there have also been islamists who have been out on the streets here who have been protesting not necessarily at his policies but at the way that the prime minister actually conducts himself and behaves himself and really is sometimes much more confrontational than they themselves would like to see. so there are a lot of things that are mixed up in this dynamic and in people's reaction. of course, no one here expected-- and, in fact, just yesterday the prime minister mentioned in parliament, he said "what did they expect? did they expect that we will kneel down before them?" that's the question he's asking and he's really couched this often in quite divisional and divisive terms but at the same time we've also gotten a sense in the last two days-- especially when he's been make manager speeches in a day, several speeches in a day-- that he almost has kind of started his presidential campaign for next year already and that if this dragged on for a few more days and he was able to point to the other as people who were connected to terrorists or otherwise vandals or marauders than that would only help to solidify his own base and that could only work to his favor. >> woodruff: soner cagaptay, just quickly, what do you expect next? >> what's going on is not a political landscape in turkey. half of the country supports the a.k.p., that's a constant. the other half does not support this party, that's now taking issue with the style of government and telling erdogan to not legislate on issues that infringes on people's liberties and rights such as recent legislation that limits the sale of alcohol, goes into issues of women's rights and people are upset. so we're going to see a new you are the any which the secular middle schrasz found a voice on the street and are going to continue to demonstrate whatever that next issue is and turkey will be unfortunately polarized for the next year between the supporters and the opponents of the government as a country that's almost split in the middle between two large political factions. >> woodruff: watching turkey closely, soner cagaptay, scott peterson, we thank you both. >> ifill: now, the last in our occasional series on america's aging workforce. "newshour" economics correspondent paul solman has reported on a factory where the average age is 74, the graying of academia, senior entrepreneurship and age discrimination. tonight, he considers how working longer could help the economy. it's all part of paul's ongoing reporting: "making sense of financial news." >> you're doing something useful, you're not just sitting and vegetating. >> reporter: at age 101 rosa finnegan is still punching in part-time at small manufacturer vita needle. by working into old age, finnegan and those like her are extending their useful lives and their retirement income. but might they also be a boon to the economy? how much are you paid? >> i don't think i'm allowed to say, am i? >> reporter: you're 100 years old, you can say whatever you want! the reason i asked: this year the gap between u.s. government spending and tax revenues is expected to be over $640 billion. threatening to widen the gap: 32 million americans reaching retirement age in the next 20 years slated to draw social security and medicare while paying zero taxes on income at all. are you slowing down? >> yes, definitely. as long as i don't come to a screeching halt i'll be lucky. >> reporter: but what if americans worked as long as rosa finnegan, whom we interviewed in december? finnegan was coy about her pay but whatever she